


Treat Yo Self 2008

by lindseyleewells



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 04:04:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2798873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lindseyleewells/pseuds/lindseyleewells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the best day of the year, and it had to start somewhere. Tom and Donna indulge in their first Treat Yo Self day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Treat Yo Self 2008

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gyzym](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gyzym/gifts).



"Can you believe it?" Leslie wailed in frustration, hanging up the phone forcefully. "All I want is Lot 48 so we can build the most perfect park in the world! The most perfect town deserves a perfect park! Why is there so much red tape all the time?"

Outbursts like this were fairly typical for Leslie, and tuning her out had pretty much become second nature to Tom by now. If there was one thing he’d discovered he was good at after his time in Parks and Rec, it was nodding along to Leslie's ramblings while he pretended to listen. He was pretty sure that she liked it better that way, anyway—adding his own thoughts to her rambles usually just sent her into overdrive.

Leslie had just sat herself in front of her computer to look at pictures of tiny horses, her go-to calming device, when Donna popped her head into the office. "Why the long face, Tommy?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. “I thought Eagleton shipped your new foot scrub today.” 

Tom shrugged his shoulders, pouting a little. Of everyone in the office, Donna would understand his pain. Working for the government of Pawnee was probably the most boring job in the world, and it was really starting to get to him. Tom was better than local government. He had to be.

"Yeah, okay. I'm gonna borrow Tom for a minute," Donna informed Leslie, not waiting for a response before she beckoned Tom out of his office.

They headed back to Donna’s desk. Tom perched on the edge, his legs dangling comically over the side, and she fixed him with an expectant stare. “Now tell me what’s up.”

Tom sighed despondently. “It’s just this job, you know?” he confessed. “It’s slowly sucking out my soul. I’m trying to turn this into Tommy’s Place—it’s supposed to be the _cool_ department in City Hall. How are we supposed to be cool if we spend all our time on a task force to fill in the pit Leslie and some weirdo fell into? It’s bumming me out!”

“You think I don’t get that?” Donna says. “You think I like pushing around papers and answering phones all the time? I so do not care if someone lost a ham sandwich in Ramset Park.”

He pouted harder. “Everything in my life sucks.”

Donna shook her head. “Okay, that’s enough of that.” She stood, cutting him off before he could whine any more. “Let’s go.”

“Go where?” He looked up at her in confusion as she took hold of the arm of his suit jacket and started to drag him out of the office. "You're gonna wrinkle it! This is a satin-silk blend!" he protested.

Tom dragged his feet as he followed Donna into the parking lot. "Where are we going?" he whined. If there was one thing Tom didn't like, it was being kept out of the loop. He was always supposed to be in the loop. He _was_ the loop.

"Just get in the Benz," Donna ordered, getting into the driver's side of her beloved car and staring out the window impatiently at Tom until he followed suit.

"Are you kidnapping me?" he asked, his voice rising, high and anxious. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you! I knew there couldn't be anyone else cool working in the Parks department!"

Donna rolled her eyes and pulled out of the parking lot.

*********

When they pulled up outside the Eagleton mall, Tom raised his eyebrows. "What are we doing here?" he asked, turning towards her.

"We're shopping." Donna shrugged her shoulders, putting the Benz in park and getting out. "I’m tired of your pity party. If there's one way to cure the blues, it's a good shopping trip." 

“In the middle of a work day?” Tom barely finished his sentence before he and Donna were cackling with delight. It turned out Donna was just as cool as he’d always suspected. “Let’s go!”

Inside the mall, the two of them gazed at the directory board. Tom's eyes opened wide in amazement as he took in all four floors of retail therapy. 

“This is my new favorite place in the whole world.”

Donna chuckled. “I cannot believe you’ve only been doing delivery from Eagleton. You’re missing out.”

“Never again,” Tom vowed. His eyes scanned the board again. “Where do we even start?"

"Let's start here," she suggested, tapping her finger on the map and pointing out a store around the corner.

"Welcome to Bloomingdale’s," the man at the front entrance greeted them warmly. “Would you care for a beverage?” 

Tom and Donna beamed at each other.

It only took Tom a moment before he was dragging Donna to the far side of the store, towards the sleepwear section.

"Look at these slippies!" Tom exclaimed, grabbing a pair of velvet slippers off a shelf and sliding his feet into them. "And this silk bathrobe!" Donna watched him, chuckling in amusement as Tom pulled the robe on over his clothing. 

"I'm one step closer to becoming the Indian Hugh Hefner," he announced, looking at himself in the mirror. "That's the dream."

Taking the robe back off, Tom reached for the collar in search of the tag. If he could afford it, that robe was _so_ going to spend the rest of its life in his closet. But before he could actually read the price, Donna put her hand on top of his. She shook her head. "No, Tommy. This is your day. Treat yourself."

“Treat myself?” Tom repeated, thinking it over for a moment. He looked from Donna to his reflection in the mirror, a wide grin spreading across his face. "Cupcake, you know just the right thing to say."

*********

As they walked out of Bloomingdale’s an hour later, Tom's arms were weighed down with bags already and he was practically bouncing with every step. Any trace of his bad mood was long gone.

"Where to next?" Donna asked, glancing at the stores around them for inspiration.

"Burberry," Tom decided with a firm nod.

"Good call, Tommy."

As soon as they stepped inside the store, Tom's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "It's amazing!" 

He didn't waste any time as he moved through the store, pulling item after item off the shelf. He grabbed two scarves and wrapped them around his neck before reaching for the knit sweaters, pulling five into his arms—one in each color. 

He rushed towards the polos next. "Everyone needs a good polo," he said as he pulled four shirts from their racks. When he turned around, he saw Donna eyeing him in amusement.

“What?” he asked, pausing. He could barely see her over the pile of clothes in his arms. “Am I going crazy here?”

She shook her head. “Go crazier, my friend. We work all day in a drab, annoying office with way too many boring phone calls and projects. What’s the point if you can’t have fun once in awhile? Treat yourself!”

“Treat! Yo! Self!” Tom crowed in agreement, and he plopped a fedora onto his head. “You like?”

“Not even a little bit. Put that thing back.”

Tom took his time as he wandered around the store, pulling item after item off the racks and handing them to the sales associates to take into the fitting rooms. When he finally made it back there himself and took a look around, he couldn’t help but laugh. _This is what I call treating myself,_ he thought with a grin, and reached for something to show off to Donna.

“What do you think of this belt?” he asked as he came out of the fitting rooms, pointing to the brown leather belt around his hips.

“Treat yo self!” Donna proclaimed.

“And what about the same belt in black? Do I need two?”

“Treat yo self!”

Tom nodded in agreement, returning to the fitting room and stepping back out again in a three piece suit paired with a new tie. He did a spin in front of the mirrors, grinning at Donna. “I have no need for a new suit when I already have three, but I look ballin’.” He looked at Donna expectantly.

“Treat. Yo. Self.”

Before Tom knew it, he was dropping everything down onto the counter, beaming at the employee standing there. "I'll take it all!"

"All of it?" the cashier asked in shock, sorting through sweaters, polos, blazers, ties, and more accessories than any man should own. "Are you sure, sir?"

"Am I sure?" Tom grinned, glancing at Donna as the two of them burst out laughing. "I’m more than sure. I'm treating myself."

*********

Three stores later, the two of them walked out of Sephora, Tom proudly carrying a bag full of face moisturizer and hand creams. Anyone who thought that Sephora was just for women had so clearly never known the wonders of baby-soft skin.

All of a sudden, Tom stopped. "Woah, woah, wait," he said. He looked from the bags that he could hardly carry to Donna's empty arms. "Why don't you have anything?"

Donna shrugged her shoulders. "This was your day, Tommy. You were the one bumming out the rest of the office."

Tom shook his head. "That doesn't mean you can't treat yourself while we're here! Your job is just as lame and boring as mine. Are you really going to set foot in the Eagleton mall and not buy _anything_? I honestly thought that was impossible."

Donna tilted her head, a slow smile spreading over her face. "You might be right..."

"Of course I am, girl," Tom insisted. He pointed towards a dress in the window of a store across the way. "That dress has Donna Meagle written all over it, and I demand that you go over there right now and buy it. Right now! Treat yo self."

*********

The work day was almost over by the time Tom and Donna arrived back at City Hall. Their arms were weighed down with bags as they walked back into the office, talking and laughing loudly. Their smiles barely even wavered when they noticed Leslie staring at them.

"Where were you?" she cried, standing up quickly. "Why do you have bags? You missed a sub-committee meeting!"

"Don't worry about it, Leslie," Tom said. "It was official Parks business. Here, have a scarf." He tossed a soft pink scarf towards her, and he could tell just from the way that her face softened that they weren’t really in any trouble. Leslie loved them both too much for that. 

“Oh, Tom, you’re so sweet,” she said, wrapping it around her neck. “But don’t think you can buy your way out of meetings! We can go over every single thing you missed before we go home for the day.”

“Whatever you say, Les.” 

Tom shot a glance at Donna, the two of them exchanging a private little grin. He held up his bags. "We've gotta do this again next year," he told her.

She nodded. “Same time, same place.”

*********

“Donna baby!” Tom called as he leapt in front of her, setting a box of cupcakes on her desk.

“What do you want, Tommy?” she asked, her eyebrows raised, hardly taking the time to look away from her computer as she continued to type.

“Treat Yo’ Self 2009!” Tom sang, a grin spread wide across his face.

Donna stopped typing immediately, a gleam in her eye. “Every year, huh?”

“Oh, we are doing this,” Tom insisted. “Don’t you let me down!” 

Donna glanced from Tom to Leslie’s office, where she and Ron were in the middle of a heated discussion about some sort of mundane Parks business. “Let’s get out of here,” she decided firmly, the grin on her lips matching Tom’s as she slipped quickly away from her desk, the two of them sneaking out of the office.

“Where are you two going?” Jerry called after them.

“Don’t worry about it, Jerry!” Donna yelled back. “Mind your business!”

As they walked through City Hall, Tom linked his arm through Donna’s. “We’re going to the spa this year,” Tom informed her. “Tommy needs a good facial.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays, gyzym! I got so excited to see you were interested in hearing about Tom and Donna's first Treat Yo Self day - it was a lot of fun to write. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Thanks to J for the great beta!


End file.
